Q&A; with Alastair Swayn, Brindabella Business Park Master Plan Architect
Tuesday, 18 November 2023
Image: Aerial of Brindabella Business Park. Photograph: Courtesy Alastair Swayn.
Tuesday, 18 November 2023
Image: Aerial of Brindabella Business Park. Photograph: Courtesy Alastair Swayn.
Well known Canberra architect Alastair Swayn is hosting two great events in the DESIGN Canberra Festival, an open studio at Daryl Jackson and Alastair Swayn Pty Ltd and a walking tour of the award winning urban design precinct at Brindabella Business Park.
Here, he chats with Ashley Thomson about the design of Brindabella Business Park and the importance of successfully integrating architecture, landscape and art curation.
With what primary considerations in mind was Brindabella Business Park’s design conceived?
The Park was conceived as a landscape environment in which buildings were placed as ‘pavilions in a park’, a walking environment where the car was relegated to the perimeter.
Integral with the architectural design, the overall master plan was informed by a strong landscape plan created at the outset that determined the species of the main street trees (Robinia), with slashes of diagonal planting (Cedars and Claret Ash) intended to span across Pialligo Avenue and visually integrate Pialligo with the Park. These elements of the landscape structure are still clear today and the investment in early landscape construction now shows in the maturity of the landscape.
How were considerations of planning and art curation balanced? Was it a natural marriage?
A master plan is the beginning of a design process, and it is rarely finite, but rather a plan that changes in response to changing circumstances and influences over time. The current Brindabella Master Plan is in its ninth or tenth iteration.
The selection of the artwork in the Park was undertaken by Terry Snow, Chairman of Canberra Airport, but integrated with the design of each part of the park.
Art works have been located within buildings and in public places. Externally they have been located as traditional urban planning devices that terminate view corridors, or act as rotation points within public squares.
How did Brindabella Business Park’s functional requirements impact on its design? For instance, most obviously, as an employment hub.
The park’s design had to take into account the basic requirement for locating office buildings of differing sizes, delivered over time, plus the need to provide adequate car parking, as there was no public transport to the Park in the early days.
The airport was keenly aware that an employment hub needs to provide more than just office space, so from the beginning, cafes, restaurants, gymnasia, tennis courts and sports fields were incorporated into the overall design. Avion Café is a stand-alone building in the ‘town square’, but other facilities like personal services and a newsagency are built into office buildings.
The concept has therefore developed into a community for work and recreation.
In what significant ways does Brindabella Business Park differ from similar preceding projects?
The key difference between Brindabella and other business parks in Australia is the quality of the landscape and public realm between the buildings, and the design of different spaces throughout the park, making it a great environment of human scale.
In other business parks, buildings are constructed on individual lots, each with its own landscape treatment. The product of this development method creates parks that have little common space and inconsistent landscape and building maintenance block to block. At Brindabella, buildings are set within a single landscape that is maintained by the Airport as the Park owner that produces a well-designed and maintained environment.
Where does Brindabella Business Park fit into national or even global discourses around better ways of working?
Working better occurs at two levels.
Firstly, the planning and landscape environment in which the buildings are set, and which provides a healthy working environment for people in the park, through the opportunities for walking, jogging and playing sport.
Secondly, many of the buildings are designed with higher than normal ceiling heights, which creates a relaxed internal working environment. The buildings are designed for long-term flexibility which allows changing working styles to be accommodated easily.
So Brindabella is on a par with some of the best business parks in Europe or North America, and the flexibility of building interiors is certainly at the leading edge of office design.
What do expect to be the “take-home” for attendees of the Urban design and Art tour?
The key message, I hope, is that people will get an understanding of the importance of a good master plan that integrates architecture, landscape and art into an enjoyable working environment.
I believe that the lessons from the integrated design and delivery of the Park can be applied to the design of other campus developments, whether they be residential sub-divisions or universities.
To book a place at DESIGN Canberra’s tour of Brindabella Business Park on 20 November, 2014, led by master plan architect Alastair Swayn, click here.
